Finwë wrote:I think he wants the fans' first impression of him to be of his true 100% self.. I don't think he wants people to explain "well he's not exactly peak form yet.. his legs are getting stronger", I think he wants to come out looking like the demi-god he's always been, wowing the crowd with a couple of thunderous dunks.

Definitely. I'm okay with that, especially this early. I'm just really eager to see him on the floor and to see this starting five get started. It's going to be so much fun. Just watching our play with Sacre we look fantastic in our starting five. With Howard we're going to look unbeatable.

Finwë wrote:I think he wants the fans' first impression of him to be of his true 100% self.. I don't think he wants people to explain "well he's not exactly peak form yet.. his legs are getting stronger", I think he wants to come out looking like the demi-god he's always been, wowing the crowd with a couple of thunderous dunks.

Definitely. I'm okay with that, especially this early. I'm just really eager to see him on the floor and to see this starting five get started. It's going to be so much fun. Just watching our play with Sacre we look fantastic in our starting five. With Howard we're going to look unbeatable.

Exactly the way I'm feeling. I just can't wait to see our 5 starters out there meshing and beginning to look in sync. Having said that though, I'm very willing to go through of more preseason games with Sacre at the 5 if that's what it takes to have Howard come out in tip top form.

I keep picturing this scenario: Nash and Howard P&R (individually would make the best P&R duo in the L btw), with Gasol at the high post (exploiting his mid-range game and his passing skills), Kobe on the weak side attracting the D as an ever present threat, and Metta on the corner ready to shoot the catch and shoot 3. Unstoppable.

"The first time I ever saw my uniform hanging in the locker I put it on right away, and it just felt like I was putting on golden armour. From that day forward, I just called it 'the golden armour', it just felt like there was something mystical and magical about it" - Kobe Bryant.

^ Yep. And just when teams decide "okay well we better collapse then" we have this guy named Kobe Bryant who's going to be just waiting out there.

We thought he was the Mamba before? Well now he's going to get to pick his time to attack. I don't know if you watched the last pre-season game, but the end of the 2nd quarter Kobe just put on a show. He picked up the team and decided "yeah, it's my turn".

As good as we've looked with Sacre, Howard is going to be unstoppable. Go ahead and double off of Dwight on Pau. I dare you. Oh? You want to sag off of Kobe Bryant and Metta World Peace? Go ahead and try it. And where I read that teams will force Nash to shoot the ball... He's a 50/40/90 guy. I like my chances.

The bottom line is that the Lakers starting five, if they stay healthy and have some prolonged time together, can be the best starting five the league has seen. But I can wait. Even if Howard sits out the rest of this week... it'll be worth it.

therealdeal wrote:^ Yep. And just when teams decide "okay well we better collapse then" we have this guy named Kobe Bryant who's going to be just waiting out there.

We thought he was the Mamba before? Well now he's going to get to pick his time to attack. I don't know if you watched the last pre-season game, but the end of the 2nd quarter Kobe just put on a show. He picked up the team and decided "yeah, it's my turn".

As good as we've looked with Sacre, Howard is going to be unstoppable. Go ahead and double off of Dwight on Pau. I dare you. Oh? You want to sag off of Kobe Bryant and Metta World Peace? Go ahead and try it. And where I read that teams will force Nash to shoot the ball... He's a 50/40/90 guy. I like my chances.

The bottom line is that the Lakers starting five, if they stay healthy and have some prolonged time together, can be the best starting five the league has seen. But I can wait. Even if Howard sits out the rest of this week... it'll be worth it.

Pretty much.

I did watch the last preseason game, and I thought the same about Kobe's performance, it was awesome. What was a nice surprise to me (I hadn't thought about it before) is that with Nash handling the ball, not only does Kobe get to pick and choose his spots - better save his legs - take better (more open) shots; he also is freed up to chase after offensive rebounds. Kobe's not the guy that's just gonna stand in the corner and space the floor even after shots go up, if he's not involved as a scorer or as a facilitator in a particular possession, he's not gonna just stand there, he's gonna find a way to contribute, and in most cases it's gonna be by going after loose ball and crashing the offensive glass. There were a couple of possessions where Kobe wasn't very involved in the scheme, but after a shot went up he went HARD and up and got the rebound (which led to FTs).

Another benefit is that he's gonna get more trips to the line for sure. With Nash distributing (plus the level of attention our other starters get from the D) and Kobe's ability to read the D and cut to open spaces, he's gonna get plenty opportunities near the basket & paint area, and he'll either finish (layup-dunk-little J), draw a foul, or find the open guy for an easy one.. The last game was a perfect example of that-> Kobe shot like 12 FTs in the first half!

"The first time I ever saw my uniform hanging in the locker I put it on right away, and it just felt like I was putting on golden armour. From that day forward, I just called it 'the golden armour', it just felt like there was something mystical and magical about it" - Kobe Bryant.

That stretch by Kobe I've watched with CaChooka's highlights at least a half a dozen times because he literally caused 3 straight turnovers and then went to the line 3/4 of the next possessions.

GREAT point about him having the ability to go after rebounds. Now that I think about it, he's definitely had his hand in there on a LOT of loose ball opportunities. I hadn't even thought about that.

Pulling this back into the topic of Dwight Howard: when Dwight comes back, Kobe will have even more room to find shots because someone might be tempted to leave Sacre, but NO ONE is going to leave Dwight Howard. Something I think we'll see a lot of is Kobe coming off of those dual screens by Artest and Howard. Then Artest fades to the corner and Howard rolls to the basket. Kobe gets either a wide open mid range jumper, Artest gets a wide open three, or Dwight gets a lob at the rim.

This was actually run by Nash in the last game. It was the one shot he made.

therealdeal wrote:That stretch by Kobe I've watched with CaChooka's highlights at least a half a dozen times because he literally caused 3 straight turnovers and then went to the line 3/4 of the next possessions.

GREAT point about him having the ability to go after rebounds. Now that I think about it, he's definitely had his hand in there on a LOT of loose ball opportunities. I hadn't even thought about that.

Pulling this back into the topic of Dwight Howard: when Dwight comes back, Kobe will have even more room to find shots because someone might be tempted to leave Sacre, but NO ONE is going to leave Dwight Howard. Something I think we'll see a lot of is Kobe coming off of those dual screens by Artest and Howard. Then Artest fades to the corner and Howard rolls to the basket. Kobe gets either a wide open mid range jumper, Artest gets a wide open three, or Dwight gets a lob at the rim.

This was actually run by Nash in the last game. It was the one shot he made.

I forgot to point out that Kobe's effort on the glass (and on D) isn't just a result of schemes, it's also a benefit of being more rested as a result of not having to carry the scoring load AND the playmaking load. He gets to save his legs, and that should not only make him more effective offensively(in the clutch too, like Nash pointed out in one of those practice reports), but like we were saying, it allows him to play harder D and go harder for rebounds. Just awesome.

Howard. You are definitely right, his comeback will be HUGE for us, on both ends of the floor. I bet we could spend all day talking about seemingly unstoppable plays that could lead to open shots for all of our guys.

I just can't ****ing wait for October 31!

"The first time I ever saw my uniform hanging in the locker I put it on right away, and it just felt like I was putting on golden armour. From that day forward, I just called it 'the golden armour', it just felt like there was something mystical and magical about it" - Kobe Bryant.

IMO he should have been playing already if it's just conditioning. There is no way to get into "game shape" without playing games. These preseason games are on TWC anyway, so it's not like the whole world is watching. Heck, large parts of LA can't even watch them yet. Get out and play and get ready for October 30th when the TNT game comes on.

In an ideal world, Dwight comes back to play in 2 games: Sunday versus Sacramento & Wednesday against the Clippers. No need to play any of our key players on the 2nd night of a back-to-back in the preseason that last game next Thursday.

Every time you want to unload on CL about how terrible our Ownership/Front Office is, I want you to step back, take a deep breath and read THIS.